A platform engineering team is key for a tech organization as it plays a crucial role in ensuring the success and stability of their applications, similar to how F1 engineering is essential for a racing team’s performance.

They provide a solid foundation for development by designing and maintaining the core infrastructure and frameworks that enable efficient and scalable application development. The platform engineering team ensures that the underlying infrastructure and services are available, stable, and secure, just like how F1 engineering ensures the reliability and performance of race car components.

Additionally, the platform engineering team act as a feature accelerator. Collaborating with other teams to optimize development processes, delivering internal self-service tools enabling software engineers to release innovative functionalities at a faster pace.

Here are some key reasons why you should want to work with a platform engineering team

Ensure reliability, security, and compliance

The platform engineering team plays a crucial role in ensuring reliability, security, and compliance within a tech organization. They establish and maintain robust systems and infrastructure to minimize downtime and ensure the availability of applications and services. They also implement stringent security measures and practices to protect data and prevent unauthorized access, while ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards. .

The success of a platform engineering team relies on several key roles

Platform Architects

They are responsible for designing and planning the overall platform architecture, including infrastructure, networking, and software components. They work closely with stakeholders to understand requirements and develop scalable and efficient solutions.

DevOps Engineers

DevOps engineers bridge the gap between development and operations, focusing on automating processes, continuous integration and deployment, and infrastructure management. They ensure smooth collaboration between development and operations teams, enabling rapid and reliable software delivery.

Security Engineers

Security engineers specialize in identifying and mitigating risks, implementing security measures, and ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations. They conduct security assessments, monitor for vulnerabilities, and establish secure access controls to protect the platform and data.

Site Reliability Engineers (SREs)

SREs focus on ensuring the reliability, availability, and performance of the platform. They monitor system health, conduct incident response and post-incident analysis, and proactively optimize systems to prevent issues. SREs also play a critical role in capacity planning and scalability to meet the growing demands of the organization.

Infrastructure Engineers

Infrastructure engineers are responsible for managing and maintaining the underlying infrastructure, including servers, networks, and storage. They ensure the platform’s stability, scalability, and performance by implementing efficient infrastructure solutions and conducting regular maintenance and upgrades.

These key roles work collaboratively to establish a robust and reliable platform, ensuring seamless operations, efficient development processes, and a secure and compliant environment for the organization’s applications and services.

Superpowers needed for a winning team

A successful platform engineering team requires expertise in multiple areas. Some essential hard skills include knowledge of cloud platforms and adoption frameworks, software development, platform engineering, CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code, observability, security, platform architecture, automation, and end-to-end responsibility for both development and deployment. Soft skills like embracing Agile/DevOps culture, knowledge sharing, collaboration, continuous learning, and keeping up with emerging technologies and best practices are also critical.

Building the foundation for an Empowered Engineering Community

A strong engineering culture brings your platform engineering team together as a collective force while empowering individual members to unlock their full potential. A clear vision and roadmap guide the team’s work, ensuring alignment and motivating them to deliver valuable platform capabilities. Building a diverse team with a psychologically safe work environment encourages creativity, innovation, and comprehensive problem-solving. Knowledge sharing within the organization helps upskill the team and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Need help?

If you believe your organization is too small to run its own platform engineering team, you can consider partnering with a company like ours. We offer Platform Engineering services, where our team can work alongside yours to deliver the necessary expertise. Alternatively, we can assist you in setting up your own platform engineering team, providing consultation and support until you are ready to take over. Together, we can unleash the power of AWS and drive your organization’s success.

Photo credits: https://unsplash.com/photos/4fQAMZNaGUo
https://unsplash.com/photos/licYp8spO1A